Plot
Ukridge and his friend Jimmy Corcoran, the latter angry that Ukridge has stolen his best new suit, run into the titular Old Stepper in the street one day, and Corky is astounded to see Ukridge blank the fellow, despite his friendly greeting and offer of a free lunch. Ukridge explains how the chill fell on their relationship...
Ukridge is sent by his Aunt Julia to her cottage in the country, mainly because her neighbour there is a successful man in the jute trade, and she hopes he may give Ukridge a job. Ukridge is sceptical, until he sees the man's daughter over his hedge and falls in love with her.
Later, a stranger calls at the house, and introduces himself as Ukridge's "Uncle Percy" - having married Ukridge's stepmother's stepsister (hence the nickname "The Old Stepper") - freshly arrived from Australia. Ukridge takes him in, and is delighted to find him a generous fellow, filling the house with comfortable furniture and providing a summer house for the garden.
The girl next door's birthday approaches, and Ukridge is in need of funds and ideas for her gift, until the Old Stepper suggests a sundial, which Ukridge agrees is a romantic thought. The man then goes and provides one, perfect for the job. With Ukridge well in the good books of his neighbours, he finally gets them to agree to come to tea one day, and his houseguest promises to fill the place with roses.
The girl and her father arrive, and all is going swimmingly until a stranger calls at the house, claims that the furniture was paid for with a bad cheque, and begins to repossess it. Ukridge has just managed to calm his guests when another stranger, the girl's uncle and Ukridge's neighbour on the other side, appears. He has returned home to find his sundial at his brother's house, his roses all removed to Ukridge's parlour and his summer house in Ukridge's garden. The guests all leave in disgust.
When the Old Stepper comes home, Ukridge berates him for his thieving ways. The old man tries to defend himself, claiming he has always "scrounged" things that were not in use, but ever since Ukridge has not trusted him, and has avoided him where possible, even at the cost of turning down a free meal.
Read more about this topic: Ukridge And The Old Stepper
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“Morality for the novelist is expressed not so much in the choice of subject matter as in the plot of the narrative, which is perhaps why in our morally bewildered time novelists have often been timid about plot.”
—Jane Rule (b. 1931)
“James’s great gift, of course, was his ability to tell a plot in shimmering detail with such delicacy of treatment and such fine aloofness—that is, reluctance to engage in any direct grappling with what, in the play or story, had actually “taken place”Mthat his listeners often did not, in the end, know what had, to put it in another way, “gone on.””
—James Thurber (1894–1961)
“We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. “The king died and then the queen died” is a story. “The king died, and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)